“I want to say to the victims, ‘I would continue to pray for you, just as I have for 30 years, a miscarriage of justice just not for me, but for the victims,’” Hinton told reporters before turning his attention to the prosecution’s faulty casework.

“Everyone who played a part in sending me to death row,” he added, “you will answer to God.”

He also thanked his attorneys with the nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative for securing his release after a number of stinging setbacks. Prosecutors have said they do not plan to retry Hinton.

His attorney, Bryan Stevenson, said a combination of racial biases against Hinton, who is black, and his impoverished background worked against him in getting his conviction overturned sooner.

“This is a very, very happy day,” Stevenson said. “It’s a tragic day, too, because Mr. Hinton spent 30 years locked in a 5-by-8 cell … but he’s an extraordinary human being.”